Old Family Friends, Childhood Boredom and Where That Leads

When I was in elementary school we lived on Merle Hay Road in Des Moines. My folks had a couple of friends that lived across the street from us, Margaret and Everett Brafford. I only just remember when they lived there because probably sometime in the mid-50s they moved farther out Merle Hay Road to a farm a little north of Johnston by Camp Dodge. We used to go visit them from time to time. Sometimes it would be for supper, maybe it was just an evening’s visit.

They had some kids. I was the oldest child in our family. Their youngest child, Carol Anne, was a few years older than me and not particularly interested in interacting with me. I had better luck with her older brother Wayne but he was a teenager (or older maybe) and I was only 9 or 10. I remember having a contest with him at dinner one time to see who could eat the most and I won, but I’m sure he let me. There were a couple of other kids, Norman and Charlene but they were much older and don’t play a part in this memoir.

We would go to visit and basically, they had nothing for us to do and it was pretty boring. But they did have two things that made the time crawl by instead of flat out stand still. They were Russian nesting dolls and shredded wheat.

I’ve loved nesting dolls since I was introduced to them at the Brafford’s. When I grew up and got married I vowed that I would have some. At the first opportunity we bought a set. They have all kinds now. I have seen a kind of 60’s vintage set with pretty girls on it and a set with Yeltsen, Breznev, Khrustchev, Stalin and others back to Lenin (or maybe it was Czar Nicholas, but I think Lenin). But the best is the Russian peasant woman sort. Here are mine…

I don’t remember exactly when we got our set but I think our kids were still little. [pipe in here kids] I have introduced them to our grandkids too. Rachel has spent a good deal of time with them. I think Ben is too young yet, and I think Wyatt wasn’t too interested in them, but maybe I’m wrong there.

The other thing the Braffords had was shredded wheat. I personally happened to like shredded wheat which probably got the number of kids in America who liked it up to 2 total. But it wasn’t just the taste of the shredded wheat that was the attraction. No, it was their packaging. Now by shredded wheat I mean Nabisco Shredded Wheat. In olden times regular shredded wheat came in “loaves”. I don’t know if the loaves have an official name but they were about the size of a bar of soap. Nabisco packed them in layers. Three or four “loaves” were laid flat in the bottom of the box, no waxed paper or plastic or celophane or anything wrapped around them, just the product. Then they would put in a cardboard divider layer, another layer of loaves, a cardboard divider, and finally the top layer of shredded wheat. I’m not exactly sure about how many were in a layer or how many layers there were but you get the idea.

Here is the great part. On the back of the box they would print a TV set or a stage proscenium. You would cut out the opening. On the divider pieces they would print finger puppets. You would cut them out, put them on your fingers, and while sticking your hands up into the box from the bottom you could dramatize little make believe stories. Always good for an hour or two. I think I remember a circus and I did find an example on the internet of one the sets but it was cowboys and indians.

Margaret didn’t like me very much and was pretty mean to me whenever she got a chance. I don’t think she did it when the folks were around but there was no love lost between her and me. Everett was a peach however. Always cheerful, always kind. I am honored that I got to be a pall bearer at his funeral along with another neighbor from Merle Hay Road and a distant relative of their family, Billie Lefler.